Cloudy Bay

Pelorus Vintage 1998
These’s nothing else quite like Pelorus in our part of the world: it’s big, bold and shows more than a hint of barrel. But it’s still got brininess among the nutty toasty characters and Christmas cake spiciness. It’s chewy flavoured too with rich, slightly candied fruit and wafts of marzipan and cedar in the mouth-aroma. Walks the knife-edge between vitality and volume (turned up to high). 90/100.
The Weekend Australian Financial Review – Wine with Tim White – December 7-8, 2002

Cloudy Bay Chardonnay 2000
87 Points
Wine Spectator – November, 2002

‘…is a powerful wine with rich grapefruit, peach and nutty oak flavours, mealy and buttery with firm acidity. Tight and slightly minerally, it won’t be at its best for at least a year.’ – Michael Cooper Sunday Star Times, 17 March, 2002

Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir 2000
‘A good powerful nose with real mint and raspberry. Good forest berry fruits, lovely silky mid-palate and a nice weight of alcohol. A good wine with excellent length. Well balanced.’ BF
Wine Magazine – September 2002

‘…has a highly scented bouquet and impressive complexity. Savoury with a firm finish, it’s a refined Marlborough wine, but less concentrated than the 1999, perhaps reflecting a cooler vintage.’ – Michael Cooper – Sunday Star Times, 17 March, 2002

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2002
While it lacks the length of the best vintages, this lively, lightly smoky sauvignon blanc is clean and refreshing. There’s a fresh grassiness about its zesty, lightly tropical aromas of pineapple, passionfruit and gooseberries, while its palate offers a juicy mouthful of peachy fruit and mineral acids. Drink 2002-2003+
OnWine Report – November, 2002

Devotees of Cloudy Bay will not be disappointed by the excellent 2002 Sauvignon Blanc. The aromas and flavours cover the spectrum from grassy through gooseberry to tropical, and the palate is vibrantly rewarding. Utterly delicious. Highly Recommended.
Wineswise – Volume 18 Number 5 – December, 2002

Cloudy Bay Te Koko 1999
Wine of the Month, ‘Marlborough Benchmarks’, North & South, April 2002
‘While earlier vintages were perhaps more ‘funky’ than fabulous, this vintage combines both elements to create a truly magnificent wine fitting of Cloudy Bay’s iconic status. It’s a taste experience with intense, smoky nettle and ripe gooseberry aromas with a rich, powerful minerally palate…’ – Stephen Bennett

The NZ Listener, April 6, 2002
‘Seminal wine that is changing the way we think about sauvignon blanc, and getting better with each vintage, this is sophisticated stuff, oozing with the myriad flavours that move critics to write ‘complex’. From the top of its nutty, soy-tinged, aromatic bouquet to the end of its fine-toned finale, this is consummately tasty, creamy textured wine made for luxuriating in. With expensive food. And divine company – of course.’ – Keith Stewart

NZ Herald, 20 March, 2002
This is a big wine but not in the typical style of most New Zealand sauvignons. Its bigness is driven by a stunningly silky texture and huge length of ever-so-slightly feral savoury flavour. If you need convincing that sauvignon blanc can be great then try this wine; it is the definition of greatness. – Joà«lle Thomson

Pelorus NV
Rich and Bready aromas lead to an intense palate with fineness and racy acidity. Excellent complex drinking
Winewise Volume 18 No 4 – October 2002

‘Ripe yet dry, this is a perfect sparkling wine for a meal.’
Spurrier’s Choice, DECANTER

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2001
‘Another terrific vintage from New Zealand’s best-known producer of Sauvignon Blanc, and with this quality and production, they’ll remain in the fore. The lively style absolutely brims with racy lime, green apple, passion fruit and guava flavours, which linger effortlessly on the polished, vibrant finish. – Harvey Steiman; 91 points Wine Spectator Weekly, April 4, 2002

« …hints of ripe apples, stone fruit, melons and tropical fruit, intense, long, vivacious with a full palate, and fresh, clean finish, dancing on the tongue. Full of charm and vibrancy and beautifully balanced. »
Charmain Smith, THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES, NZ

Cloudy Bay Pinot Noir 1999
‘The best-ever from this big-name Marlborough winery, and certainly that region’s most stylish pinot noir.’
Joà«lle Thomson, THE PRESS

‘Very elegant and delicate with juicy red fruit aromas and a pure pinot noir character. Very stylish.’
DECANTER, UK

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2000
‘This stylish white has more pizzazz than most. Crisp in texture, ripe in flavour, with passionfruit and pear up front, picking up hints of mint, celery, lime and green chilli notes that keep breezing their way through the lively finish’.
91 points,
Harvey Steiman, WINE SPECTATOR – New Releases, September 30, 2001

‘Cloudy Bay is the greatest bargain in the world of cult wines’
Dave Broom, CATERER & HOTELKEEPER, UK

‘Reeks of freshly picked broad beans with slices of quince and yellow tropical fruits. Its lively vigorous and verdant to sniff with a soft texture on the vibrant palate…Drink it without reserve.’
Philip White – ADELAIDE ADVERTISER

Pelorus 1996
‘Only hearts of stone could fail to be seduced by this delicately copper-tinged fizz..with its rich, raspberry and brioche bouquet and creamy palate full of summer pudding fruitiness’.
Anthony Rose, INDEPENDENT REVIEW, UK

‘An heroic mouth-filling méthode with an impressive mix of yeast autolysis and intense fruit flavours. Pelorus lovers will certainly not be disappointed with the 1996 vintage.’
89 points,
Bob Campbell MW, CUISINE

Cloudy Bay Te Koko 1998
Although made from the same variety as the company’s famous sauvignon blanc, it’s handled very differently in the winery, with indigenous (wild) yeasts, French oak fermentation and malolactic fermentation producing a sauvignon blanc for chardonnay lovers – powerful, with deep tropical fruit flavours in a dry, complex style that is also downright delicious. 5 stars.
Michael Cooper, SUNDAY STAR TIMES, September 9, 2001

CR: Cloudy Bay – Sauvignon 2004

Le nez est toujours très typé sauvignon, mais de façon moins caricaturale que sur le vin jeune; il est moins expansif, mais à gagné en distinction, avec de fines nuances de truffe et une pointe terpénique. La bouche est pleine, ronde à l’attaque, puis plus vive dès le milieu, avec des saveurs citronnées qui se prolongent dans la finale.

Si ce vin est moins explosif que dans sa jeunesse, son évolution me paraît intéressante, car il est aussi moins stéréotypé et plus fin.

Yves Zermatten